Celestalis HL technopunk network site

Main menu

Magali Kidd is tired: she’s done with black ops. She gave me back her armour and will from now on float in Hangars Liquides aquarium. Her clone Rhea Cortes is obviously following her.
I lose two great fighters, but I will keep hearing their psyonic songs, like dolphins in the data stream.
Here we are at Hangars holobeach™ for a last souvenir picture together. Farewell Magali.

He lies on the couch, then closes his eyes. Thrill removes his armour, piece by piece, revealing burns and blood blisters on his skin.
She spends half an hour operating devices on him, then, when she’s finished, Lawrence looks asleep.
Frida is waiting in a corner. She looks at Xer0, who nods and sits close to Celestalis, she then looks at Thrill and exits the medlab. Thrill steadily follows her.

They both enter a lounge room and sit on a pale blue bench. Frida lifts her chin “So?”
Thrill shivers “Oh, at first it went very well. We parachuted on Nova Venetia at night, as agreed. Ash was jamming their systems. Xer0 hacked the hatch in 30 seconds and we breached in.
Everyone was silent, even Djehan was fast and moving slyly. I didn’t agree at first, but Lawrence was right. Then Ash sat in the lotus position and started accessing their system. I hate it when her AI half takes over, but she looked like she knew what she was doing.

Then the black guards ran in. Oh, fuck, Frida! Lawrence started moving very fast, but his eyes looked like holes, black holes on a ghost. I had to look away and concentrate on shielding Ashling from the guards.
Djehan was grinning while she made her way through the soldiers with her grey machetes. At one point she started singing a children song.
Xer0 was laughing out loud. She danced around cutting everything with her claws.
When Ash opened her eyes, no guard was standing. We escaped to the roof and ignited our backpacks.”

Frida says nothing, sipping green tea from a cup. Then she turns towards Thrill again “And we have got it, right?”
Thrill shakes her head “Yes, yes. We have it. Ash and Djehan are on stasis downstairs. They should be fine, ten to twenty days.” She gulps her tea down, then shivers again.
“Frida, I don’t know if I want to stay. Now I know why everyone’s afraid of the Crimsons.
I’m trained and skilled, but that was too much! It’s insane! I signed to be in a black ops crew, not to mess with cruel voodoo gods.”
Frida smiles “You will get used to this. It’s just business. Everything will be alright”.

Djehan is sitting in the middle, wearing a black armor and a rifle on her back.
Hibiki is standing against a wall, the smoke of a cigarette coming from behind his mask.
Celestalis is wearing warpaint and is sitting nearby. Behind him, five Crimson Merchants stand in their black and red uniforms.

Some Realcov managers are sitting among the crowd as well

On the opposite corner, Countess Frida Orsini, a thin lady wearing a large hat and a long dress, barely moves her chin to let Lawrence know she’s there.

At the entrance, two Crimsons stand behind a metal detector, while two AI’s, Magali and Rhea, help scanning everyone entering the area.
“Eldtrich Commons” says a dangerous looking woman, sporting two katanas on her hips, while she’s granted access.
Ambassador, in her shiny silverish outfit, is typing on a datapad, watching and listening.

Celestalis stands up and lights a cigar. The crowd stops mumbling.
“We didn’t suffer major damage. All missiles were stopped by our countermeasures.
Drones and their firebombs left some marks around, but we will rebuild.
Sincerely, I don’t even think we should fight back Nova Venetia, they can’t wait for it!
The giant doesn’t bother an ant passing in his garden, and so will do Hangars”

Djehan looks up and stands. She doesn’t look stoned as usual. “De minimis non curat praetor, my father always used to say. The chief magistrate does not concern himself with trifles. It’s latin!”

Celestalis blinks and lights up “Latin was the language of the ancient empire of Rome. They had many wise sayings. “Sic transit gloria mundi, is one I like! Here flows the glory of the world. We should have it on flags around the city, under Hangars Liquides logo!”

People suddenly stand up, raising their fists “Yes! Let’s print flags! Let’s place them all around the city!”

A dark haired young woman stands up “Realcov will pay for it”.
A man raises his hand “I’m Gabriel Adler. Hauer-Bosch will contribute.”
Lawrence smiles “Count the Crimsons in. And we will maintain the defense systems active all around town.”

Celestalis sits down in the square, under an abstract sculpture. He looks exhausted.

“And this is the last ground-to-air system, Sir”, a dark haired officer in her late twenties says. “All our warehouses should be safe, plus all the main public places. This doesn’t exclude collateral damage, of course, and won’t last forever”.

Celestalis stands up, dismisses the officer with a pat on the shoulder, then jumps in his black helico. Once in, he swallows three painkillers, drinking something from a plastic flask and ignites the vehicle.

“I went and see the crash. Terra Gunship. Black, with red insignia, just like ours, Lawrence. Black Guards of Nova Venetia”
“I know, Frida”
“Did we take it down?”
“No, Frida. No idea who did it, actually”

Frida opens the small fridge, pours herself a glass of vodka, gulps it down. She turns to Celestalis.

1.
The white Lancia-Chrysler Delta lands in front of the Marcianum school for foster children. A slender lady in a dark long dress and a large brimmed hat descends from the hover car. Her pale skin is mostly hidden by big, black sunglasses. She looks thirty-something.

The door opens and a middle aged woman appears. ‘Countess Orsini! It’s an honour for the school to have you here today, we…’
The lady in black raises a hand and stops the woman ‘thanks Director, now where is little Lawrence Gabrieli?’.
The woman gestures, clearly excited, pointing towards a corridor ‘He’s waiting in my office and we would really thank you for your donation, it is such…’
But the lady is already walking in the office direction. She opens the door and faces a seven year old child with long hair, holding a blue backpack.
The lady smiles and extends her hand: ‘I’m Frida. Are you ready to go?’.

2.
The hover car dives in the lagoon, suddenly turning dark-blue on the exterior. The child covers his face in terror, but Frida touches his hands ‘it’s all under control, no more car crashes for you’.

Lawrence looks astonished while standing in front of a huge window: ‘I can’t believe this!’ Outside, algae and fish are passing by.
The lady raises a thin eyebrow ‘nothing an architect and a couple engineers couldn’t take care of: my grandfather decided we weren’t going to leave our palace by any means”.

3.
‘Lawrence dear, what’s wrong with Isabella? Her mother told me you don’t want to see her anymore’. The boy stands still, looking at the muddy streams of water beyond the window ‘she spent the whole saturday’s party talking with another guy’.
The lady steps closer ‘well, but…’
The boy turns and grabs her wrists ‘I don’t trust her, Frida. I don’t trust her anymore!’

4.
‘And you think smashing the teeth of a boy just because he drew a swastika on your book is a valid reason? Did I teach you wing tsun for that?’
Frida holds the pad with the teacher note until her fingers turn blue.

5.
The man in a black armour with red details rushes in the huge hall, decorated with Tiziano paintings. ‘Frida, I’ve got to go. The bastards wanted me to blow a whole quarter of civils. They will report me to martial court. I made sure no one will ever bother you’.

6.
The Agusta-Huawei helico silenty lands on the flat roof. It is all black with red details. A thirty-something lady wearing large sunglasses jumps down from it. Something big is burning in the distance.

The school teacher stands in front of twentythree children, all sitting behind their desks.
“..and that’s how the town got submerged. The pumping of water under the soil as a substitute for the extracted oil didn’t quite work out”.
A bell rings, the children stand up and run outside the class.
The teacher looks at the only one still in the classroom, who’s slowly walking out.
“Gabrieli! You asked for piano lessons, right?”
The child stops, removes the dark hair flip from his eyes and looks up “yes, mistress Rosselli”.
“Well, Miss Bianchi is only available to meet you now. She’s waiting upstairs in the music room. Now make your move!”

Lawrence runs up the stairs, the sunlight casting shadows through the windows’ iron bars.
He knocks three times on the door, and opens it after a while, since there’s no reply.
An old lady with long grey hair is reading a dossier, sitting at the grand piano.
Lawrence Gabrieli, Born March, 1 2440. Father: Daniele Gabrieli, deceased. Mother: Edith Winter, deceased. Brother: Peter Gabrieli.
The lady notices the presence of the child standing in the middle of the dark, dusty room.
Three large windows on the opposite side are covered by blue drapes.

She taps on the bench twice “Come sit here!”
Lawrence sits down, looks at the old, scratched Bösendorfer, an electronic keyboard inserted where the piano keyboard once was, then looks at the lady. “My father had a real one, a grand Steinway!”
“Oh, so you can already play, can you?” The child nods, looking at the keyboard.

The room door opens, a caretaker in her uniform appears “It’s time for a nap, sweety”.
The lady at the piano nods in agreement “See you tomorrow at the same time”.

Lawrence sits in his bed, looking very disappointed “…but Miss Giulia, I’m not tired!”
The caretaker pushes him down and tucks him in “All children must take their afternoon nap, now be quiet and sleep tight”. She switches off the small wall neon lamp and walks away.

The black hovercar flies over the green hills of Belluno, a factory passing by from time to time.
Edith Winter holds the child in her arms, smiling. Her hair fly in the sun.
“Mom, would one of us two have to die, who would you choose?”
Edith caresses the child dark hair removing the flip from his eyes “I would choose to die myself, Lawrence”. She kisses him and holds him tight.

Celestalis wakes up on the carpet. His neck is aching, his eyes are burning.
He reaches for a flat plastic flask, grabs a small black box and gulps down a painkiller, then two sleeping pills.

Outside of the big window, a dark cypher car crosses a yellow gravtaxi in the neon night.

Nova Venetia is the the suspended city floating over the now submerged Venice, a place everyone calls HoloVenice.
The fact that they used holograms to recreate the sunken city to keep atracting tourists is where the small republic gets its popular name from. That option was way cheaper than elevating the city and restoring it.

Nova Venetia gets its power out of oil pumping, which lowered the mainland level and flooded all Veneto region and part of what was once known as Northern Italy.

Celestalis refused to sanitize with explosives a zone in the mainland where civils were illegally living. He was referred to Martial Court but escaped with his personal legion before being arrested. His hackers managed to destroy all data about him and the élite which departed with him.

A man of culture and a lover of liberal arts, quite kind and nice to people, he is equally cold blooded with enemies.
Don’t be fooled by his behaviour and always remember where he had his nickname from.

At the moment leading Crimson Merchants Ltd., a company selling 20. and 21. century art.
There are rumours they may be thieves and smugglers, but we have no real proof about anything which is not the legal activities they lead.

His modus operandi has always been to disseminate the place where he lives with sleeping agents, so I suggest caution. He doesn’t seem to be a threat at the moment and I suggest further observation of him and his team.

Update: It seems that ‘criminal’ Celestalis, as he was called in a previous town, is re-joining his originary Black Guards élite.

Down in the blinding light, it’s getting coldI’ve been worn out by the night, but I can’t let go

Celestalis leaned on the huge window, letting his training retreat in the back of his brain.
Outside, the black and blue city was endlessly glooming and shining under his eyes. The air was crystal clear, pollution was mostly gone by decades.

The sound in my ears exclaim I’ve been here long The freedom hard to maintain, I should be gone

He pushed against the oblique glass to move away, grabbed an aluminum container of chicken masala and a Kingfisher beer from the fridge and sat on the zero-g leather couch.

Long have I waited here for nothing to come The sequence of twisted turns, that can’t be undone

Music was unrolling from the hidden speakers in the walls, distorted and saturated in the remix version by a glitch musician.

Zei was away since a couple of months. They had agreed on a no contact policy, as usual in this kind of missions. Celestalis sipped some beer from the bottle and thought she should be on her way back at this time. She had passes to be granted access back in the city, she knew exactly which outposts were abandoned, which guards could be corrupted and how to hack the turrets.

A beautiful day, the flood only washing the want away cool light in the sun, and you’re still where you begun

He smiled to himself. Warpaint, armours, weapons, gunships and still they couldn’t see.
He and Ash alone had taken care of twelve Black Guards. At dawn, they had sealed the corpses in bodybags and sent them back to Nova Venetia in a drone ship, hoping it was the last time.

Long have I waited here for nothing to come The sequence of twisted turns, that can’t be undone

Celestalis stood up, walked in front of the large window and lit a cigar of cloned cuban tobacco. He touched a sensor and the window started whirring and slowly lifting up.
Blowing a cloud of smoke in the fresh springtime air, he let his training take over again.

I’ve finally found a new base. You all know the previous city, among fascist cops, terrorists and psychos, was not going to work for us anymore.
I would have choked the fuckers one by one in a dark alley, but you know the rules: business always comes before pleasure.

The new town was abandoned back in the day due to over-pollution giving cancer to the majority of the population: when that was clear, the corporations scooted and who could followed. The others slowly died.

Looks like some researchers found the cure to cancer, at least to this form, and a corporation is coming back to produce the cure in large amounts.

The place is still empty, real estate prices are close to nothing and I want Crimson Merchants to be here first.

I’ve met Realcov big heads, the architects and engineers who built the place, and they’re alright in having new residents. They might have understood what we do, but guaranteed no one will bother us.

If they do, we will play hide and seek like the old times: no one will wonder about the corpses here.

This message is being also sent to the few who backed us up in the previous city, so that they know where to find help and shelter.

Find hereby attached the encrypted route to come here, I’ll see you soon with pleasure.